Debt Facts

Some new, interesting tidbits -- but we do NOT know if or when these were confirmed for accuracy. Caveat emptor.

A Few Little Facts About Debt

Microsoft Corporation makes $34 million profit a day. Coincidence -- this same amount is what all of sub-Saharan Africa pays each day in debt service (interest and capital repayments).

The cost of meeting basic goals in Africa for health, nutrition, education and family planning would be about $9 billion a year.

In 1996, sub-Saharan Africa paid the developed world $13.4 billion, including $9.5 billion in new loans and $2.6 billion of its aid (23 per cent of all grants). So nearly a quarter of aid to Africa simply goes to repay debts.

Developing countries paid $270 billion in debt service last year - $60 per person. This has risen from $160 billion in 1990.

The $25 billion Britain is spending on 232 new Eurofighters would suffice to cancel the entire debt of south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa spends $11.5 per person on health, $25.3 per person on education and $22 per person on servicing its debt.

Total mortgage debt in Britain is more than $600 billion. This is more than the debt of south and east Asia, including India and China.

In 1990 the number of mothers dying in childbirth was 470 per 100,000 live births. The figure today is 480 deaths per 100,000 live births.

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